Government careers offer great job security, benefits, and training. Here’s your complete guide to finding government jobs in Portland and Nationwide.

Finding a Government Job in Portland, Oregon, and Nationwide

By A Portland Career, and edited by Dan Hahn, M.S., and Suzie Sherman

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“And, so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” — John F. Kennedy

If you’re asking what you can do for your country, or for the world, the answer is: there are opportunities as diverse as you can imagine. Read on for our guide to finding great government careers in Portland, Greater Oregon, remote, and throughout the country.

 

Local city, county, state, and federal employment opportunities abound, and often come with great job stability, professional development, and benefits. Everything from entry-level service industry work to highly technical civil engineering is needed at every level of government, in fields as disparate as forestry and air traffic control; light rail operation, cybersecurity, and policy analysis. There are park jobs and zoo jobs and arts organization jobs. There are roles in tech, transportation, healthcare, housing, construction, and project management.

All told, almost 285,000 people work in public sector jobs in the state of Oregon. That’s about 15% of all workers! If you’re a job seeker, or researching potential career paths, bookmark this list for citywide, regional, state, and federal government job opportunities.

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Portland and Greater Portland Metro Area Career Resources

  • Portland.Gov: Visit the main City of Portland page to get an overview of the municipal departments and projects that are active and available for public participation and contributions. If you’re in your career exploration phase, this’ll be a helpful resource to familiarize yourself with city governance. You can also head over to the City of Portland Human Resources Department’s Career Center for more help, as well.

  • City of Portland Job Opportunities: Next, click over to the Jobs tab at Portland.Gov to find tons of current job listings in the city. This step is best when you know the job titles and job requirements you’re qualified for, but it’s also great to peruse the city job board to get a feel for the salary ranges and benefits available in local government employment. The city often needs accounting professionals, parks and rec staff, building maintenance technicians—the whole gamut of well-paid, stable public service job opportunities abound. Periodically, there are also entry-level and internship positions open at the city level.

  • The Port of Portland: It might not be an intuitive go-to for typical job seekers, but the Port of Portland coordinates regional business development and transport access for three airports, including PDX, several marine terminals on the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, and commercial business parks throughout Greater Portland, Hillsboro, Troutdale, and Gresham. All told, the Port creates 27,000 local jobs across many fields, including transportation, first responders, project management, cargo handling, food service, real estate, and more. Check out their employment opportunities here.

  • Multnomah County Jobs: It’s easy to get the lay of the land at Multnomah County’s Jobs page. It’s just one click to learn more about career path opportunities and job openings for external applicants (who don’t currently work for the county), current employees, and prospective interns, including their College to County internship program for current college students and recent graduates. They make the job application process and the career services they offer super smooth to navigate.

  • Metro Region Jobs: Metro is the regional authority bridging the three counties and 24 cities that comprise the Greater Portland region. The job board at Metro covers career opportunities in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas Counties, across 17,000 acres of public parks and trails, and public projects and venues like the Metro Regional Center, the Oregon Zoo, the Oregon Convention Center, Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, and Portland Expo Center. The benefits, labor union membership and training programs available to Metro employees are bar-none.
A screenshot of the State of Oregon Job Opportunities Job Search page

State of Oregon Career Resources

State of Oregon Job Opportunities: The home page for Oregon State career opportunities shows a menu with instructions on the hiring process, and how to get into their system to apply for state government jobs. It also shows pay scales, benefits, and career information for veterans. Click on the Look for Jobs link, and you’ll see current statewide job openings, as shown in the image above. From there, you can enter keywords for the type of job you’re looking for, and click on the drop-down “More” menu for the many different government agencies and departments, job cluster type, and work type, such as seasonal, temporary, permanent, part-time, full-time, etc.  

Screen shot of the ONET U.S. Department of Labor database government jobs showing growth potential

Hot tip: Find the government careers that are experiencing the fastest growth through the U.S. Department of Labor’s O*NET database! Just click to sort the list by “Projected Growth.”

Federal Government Career Resources

  • U.S. Department of State Careers page: The State Department offers a diverse range of job opportunities to join the Civil or Foreign Service and represent the U.S. both domestically and globally. Whether you work in consulates and embassies, or in jobs across technical, financial, personnel management, law enforcement, infrastructure or other fields, there are opportunities to serve.

  • USAJobs.Gov: The official website of the United States government to find jobs in its many federal agencies and departments. Yes, they’re even hiring at NASA! The home page gives you an overview of the different paths to applying for federal government jobs, how to create an online profile and complete your application materials, and a quick link to open positions for urgent hiring. Science, engineering, and cybersecurity jobs are in immediate demand, as well as human resources management, accounting positions, and information technology. Many jobs on the site are available as remote or hybrid positions as well, so you don’t necessarily have to pick up and move to Ypsilanti or anything.

  • Go Government.Org: The Partnership for Public Service is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization committed to strengthening the U.S. government and our democracy by empowering the public to find meaningful careers in government. Bookmark it along with USAJobs.Gov in order to better navigate the official site. Use Go Government.Org to:

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